I
was there. I was right up front at the edge of the stage through most of the
shows. This website chronicles my personal experience as a fan at the concert.
Since I haven't been able to find much information on the web about this historic
musical and cultural event, I decided to create this site as a monument, and
hopefully it will grow with contributions from others. I myself have photographs
of the day. I invite you to share any information or photographs you may have.

The
headline act was Jim Morrison & The Doors. That year their song 'Touch
Me' was a huge hit. During the day the emcee Kim Fowley announced that John
Lennon had heard of the event and was on a plane heading to Toronto to play
for us... There was a collective 'Yeah Right'.. However at about 9:pm the
spotlights turned from the stage to the stands and focused on the press booth.
There behind the glass were John & Yoko.. Lennon was in his trademark
white suit, long red hair and beard. There is a video & CD of Lennon's
performance called "Live Peace In Toronto". Also I believe their is a bootleg
CD of The Doors performance, mislabeled as "The Doors Live In Mexico City".
(A diehard Doors fan, I went to see Robby Krieger, their guitarist, play at
The El Mocambo in Toronto in November 1982 and he mentioned having played
last in Toronto at The Rock & Roll Revival. He was great at both shows,
but the El Mocambo show was eerie 'cause he played Doors and Jimi Hendrix
songs instrumentally, without any vocals and it felt like Jim and Jimi were
there.Definately haunting.) There was a curly haired guy sitting behind me
in the evening who had a professional looking hand held movie camera.. he
kept saying "Sit down, I'm trying to make a movie..."The ticket
price of The Toronto Rock & Roll Revival was $5.

The
list of performers who played at The Toronto Rock & Roll Revival
was like a who's who of rock & roll:

The Doors.. I love
The Doors. When I heard a DJ at CKOC radio announce that The Doors were coming,
I was in disbelief. When I arrived at Varsity Stadium, I went to the left
side of the stage. Standing there was Jim Morrison. He stayed by the back
steps of the stage for hours, staring at his boots. He wore a pair of jeans,
white T-shirt and a sea blue "raft" type winter jacket. I stayed with him
for hours it seemed: Through Bo Diddley,Gene Vincent and Chuck Berry, though
a fence divided us. I took some snapshots of Jim with an antique Kodak camera,
one of the ones that has a tent like apparatutus that folds up. All day long,
no one went to talk to him, though there were many celebrities there. I always
wish that I had jumped the fence and gone over to him. He seemed lonely and
dejected. I had great spiritual affinity with him. Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger
and John Densmore were up on stage most all day long, intent, keenely observing
every musical nuance. At night Jim joined the roster of greats on stage, watching
John & Yoko, and Eric Clapton previewing The Plastic Ono Band. The Doors
were the headline act and went on last. It was cold and past midnight when
they began. No words I could write could ever describe it. Morrison was explosive,
easily hitting performance pitch, he was electrifying. People were chanting
'Light My Fire'.. "Should we give it to 'em?" asked Jim..."Nahhh!"
said Robbie Krieger and launched into another song. Then a few songs later
we went crazy when the opening keyboard swirl announced Light My Fire. At
one point during "The End", Jim leapt about four feet in the air landing in
a heap on the stage.. it shocked me. His agility and unexpected timing combined
with a blood curdling shriek made my neck hair stand on end.

Update,
12/18/00:Just read "Light My Fire: My Life With The Doors" by Ray
Manzarek. Great book if you're a Doors fan..and even if you're not! No one
else but Ray can tell the story. It doesn't mention the Toronto Rock and Roll
Revival, <shaking Ray's astral tree> "hey dude.. This was the second
most important event in rock and roll history next to Woodstock, and The Doors
were the headline act.." You were wrong though Ray, The Doors did change
other peoples lives as much as it did yours.

Update,June
2, 2002: I just got home from seeing The Robby Krieger Bandplay
at a club called The Evening Star in Niagra Falls, New York.
What a great show.. I was expecting to hear Robby play jazz fusion style music
as he did in 1982.. instead, he treated us to an evening of The Doors. Complete
with Robby singing and trading guitar licks with his son, who played second
guitar.

Update,
September 29, 2002: Went to Barrie, Ontario, Canada to see The Doors
play at the Harley-Davidson 100th Anniversary concert. Stewart Copeland filled
in for John Densmore, who was unable to perform due to tinnitus. The show
was really great. I wish John was there though. I got some good photographs.

Of all the performers
who played at the revival, Chuck Berry was the king of working the audience.
He had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand as he duck-walked and
mugged his way through his rock & roll classics. You felt like you had known
him forever.. he was at once the king and the fool. Particularly on the song
"My Ding-a-ling", which was a new song to fans. He quickly taught the audience
to sing a long, and with school boy charm led us to the hysterically funny
"You must be playin' with your own ding-a-ling!" conclusion. There is a record
of Charles' set titled:CHUCK
BERRY Toronto Rock N Roll Revival 1969 (Breakaway BWY69 Volume II EX 10)

Little Richard's
set was nothing short of riotous. He had a well rehearsed Ellingtonesque big
band and played and sang his heart out. He wore a dazzling white suit covered
in one inch square mirrors, like a disco ball. The crowd was totally pumped
by this time and LR took advantage all the way. He was non-stop rock &
roll energy. at one point he jumped up on his grand piano and ripped off his
jacket. He twirled the jacket in the air and threw it into the crowd. It was
about to land on me and I was thrilled, except things went into slow motion.
As it sailed towards me, I looked around and could see that everyone else
had the idea of grabbing it. I jumped out of the way... dozens of people piled
on it and tore it to shreds... pheww. There is a video available of Little
Richard's performance at The Toronto Rock & Roll Revival titled Little
Richard: Keep On Rockin' (WARN-V38301)

Jerry Lee Lewis has
to be the greatest rock & roll piano player who ever whipped the pearls. He
started out subdued, and if you'll forgive me,(it's been over 30 years...)
I can't remember the exact order of the songs. At some point, he dramatically
flew back out of his seat as if being yanked by the collar, then tossed the
chair aside. Like a rock & roll Beethoven, the familiar curly-Q twist of hair
falling across his serious face, he played high notes with his boot heels,
used his elbows and pounded the devil out of his piano; a man fighting his
dragon yet never losing the be-bop sock hop tickle of the ivories. This was
rock & roll defined.

You have to imagine
that the rock & roll icons who played at The Toronto Rock & Roll Revival were
pretty much ten years after their peak in the 50's. Yet here was Gene Vincent
in a white shirt and black leather pants howling Be Bop A Lula.. it was great.
I took a few minutes during Gene's set to go look for my sister and her friend
Wilma. I went to the top of the stands and watched his set from a distance
for a few songs, trying to spot my sister Elaine Maxwell in the crowd. Be
Bop A Lula rang out and echoed around the stands. I snapped a photo
of the stage while Gene played, but you can't really see him from the top
of the stands. It was magic. My sister's girlfriend Wilma Fisher often played
and sang Be Bop A Lula on her guitar. She was at the show somewhere with us.
I went back to the side of the stage to watch Gene up close.No one in the
crowd but me seemed to notice Jim Morrison, standing backstage while Gene
Vincent played; nor that they had swapped pants for the day.

I watched Bo Diddley
from the side of the stage, 'cause I was keepin' vigil with Jim Morrison,
who was standing about 20 yards away at the back stairs to the stage. Bo was
great, and had a relatively big band with singers and rhythm guitarist. The
other members of The Doors were onstage soakin' up the Bo Diddley beat. You
can see a few minutes of the set on the "Live Peace In Toronto" video.

Junior Walker and
the All-Stars had a huge hit in 1969 with "What Does It Take" I
don't remember much about their performance because I was walking around checking
out the crowd while they played. I love that song though.

Oh my god, where
did these guys come from? I had never heard of them before.. They all had
long beautiful hair.. like the set of a Pantene commercial.
They really rocked, and had a guy sitting cross-legged playing a keyboard that just
controlled the lights. The entire band was called Alice Cooper, before just the singer became known as Alice Cooper. They were a great, really tight band, doing great, really tight original rock & roll songs. Towards the end of the set, the singer slashed open two pillows with a big knife and scattered feathers all over the stage, blew them into a feather storm with compressed air, then released two chickens from separate bags. I was up front as close as you could get.. Later people who must have been sitting further back, thought they saw chickens getting killed. It was pandemonium, but No Chickens Were Harmed, just feather pillows - sorry for the expose, LOL. Apparently
there is an Alice Cooper album called "Toronto Rock'n'roll Revival 1969, Volume
IV", distributed by Stage 1 Records England.

Doug Kershaw, though
an excellent musician, was not well received at this show, perhaps because
his sound was not rock & roll. I have since come to like Cajun music. He was
a funny looking skinny guy playing a fiddle, which was out of place in the
context. Still he bravely ignored the few people up front who were cat-calling
and gave us some genuinely fiery Cajun tunes.

Tony Joe White had
a big hit in 1969 with the guttural "Polk Salad Annie". His up from the swamp
blues was excellent. He played with just a bass player and drummer. This show
came at the peak of his popularity and I loved every second of it. Tony Joe
White also wrote "Rainy Night In Georgia", a big hit for Brook Benton a few
years later. Where do great musicians like this learn to play..

This guy was wild,
diving right off the stage and into the crowd. He had really long hair, wore
a frilly lace shirt and Lord Fauntleroy jacket, and screamed like a maniac.
Part of his set, he was in the crowd with a long microphone cable getting
his shirt ripped by fans. I had never heard of him before, nor ever again,
but I'll never forget that wild man's chaotic performance. Apparently he had
a long colorful history in England.

When I arrived at
Varsity Stadium, Chicago were already onstage playing. That Spring, David
Clayton Thomas and Blood,
Sweat & Tears had a big hit with the song 'Spinning Wheel', which opened the
doors for horn based rock bands. I did'nt pay much attention to them, rather
I walked around the crowd for a while soaking up the sunshine, face painting
and girls. I became a great Chicago Transit Authority fan a year later.

Cat Mother &
The Allnight Newsboys were from Greenwich Village in New York City and had
a top forty hit in 1969 called "Good Old Rock & Roll". The Song was a
medley of 50's hits. I really liked the song, and the band. They were fronted
by singer/guitarist Charly Chin, an Asian-American, which was unusual. Their
album " The Street Giveth, And The Street Taketh Away" was produced by
Jimi Hendrix. This was a really great rockin' band.

This was one of Toronto's
best bands in the early seventies. I don't remember their performance here,
because I spent some time checking out the crowd, but I saw them many times
after this at the Toronto CNE ampitheatre and at the Nob Hill Hotel . Read
Whiskey Howl lead singer John
Witmer's recollection

I'm not sure that
Nucleus the band actually did a set, but I mention them here because the members
acted as the back up band for Chuck Berry, and I believe Gene Vincent.. In
the Yoko Ono release of the video "Live Peace In Toronto", you can see drummer
Danny Taylor backing Charles. Danny's goofy smile was often seen in downtown
Toronto in those days before he became famous when the band morphed into the
awesome
A Foot In Coldwater

This is a late addition:
I don't remember seeing this band at the show, but recently heard from someone
in the know. I got there about 1:pm and the show started at noon. If anyone
else has any info, please email me.

Peace, Love &
I created this website on September 13, 1999 - the thirtieth anniversary of the Toronto Rock & Roll Revival. At the time I was shocked to find, (after years of searching), there was not a single reference to this event anywhere online.. not a page, not a paragraph, not a sentence, nor even a single reference anywhere world-wide, to its title, 'The Toronto Rock and Roll Revival'. It was as if this historic concert had been systematically erased from history. As I searched and found nothing, year after year, I began to realize, the memory, yeah, the very web existence.. of the ultimate event in rock and roll, the day the music lived, was lost to mankind, and could easily remain so.. no one I talked to ever heard of it.. I felt isolated, alone with a cherished memory few even cared about. Out of all who ever lived, it fell to me.. to kiss life into a fading memory, a low flame who's extinction hung by the thread of my story. For the living and yet unborn who might someday care, the resurrection of this lost page of history so nearly vanished.. fell to me alone. So.. , working from my treasured thirty year old memory of this, the first rock concert I ever attended, I created a definitive historical rendering of a what I consider to be the greatest event in all of rock and roll history. I have noticed in the intervening years, other references to it have appeared on the web, many directly and indirectly quoting mine, some even reworded my writing.. The event belongs to the mankind, and the ages..and I'm proud to have kept the flame alive. I hope more sets from this very well filmed concert get released soon, (in HD please).. the footage bears important historical witness, and it's not fair to mankind not to share them, although, in all fairness to for D.A. Pennebakker, it may be the event promoter who is stifling release of the the filmed sets. Please email me, and pass along any recollections or photos you may have. Cheers! March 17, 2011
keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel..